Chicken Wire Called Fix for Nav Aid Woes at Airport

Chicken Wire Called Fix for Nav Aid Woes at Airport

By Lee Revis
Editor, Valdez Star

PIONEER FIELD - Kip Knudson, the Deputy Commissioner of Aviation for the Alaska Department of Transportation, made an appearance before the Valdez City Council a week ago Monday to give the city an update on why the ground based Navigational Aids at the airport are still down, despite the fact the city had been assured they would be turned off for less than two weeks. "All we did was turn it off," he said, but claims FAA regulations have interfered with bringing the system back online. "They have different standards for turning it back on," he lamented.

During his appearance, he said for years the Valdez Airport, now officially named Pioneer Field, has operated with exemptions to the rules on the how and where airplanes communicate with the nav aids, which the FAA is no longer going to allow. The problem, he said, lies in a blank spot on the approach path onto the runway used by planes to land when visibility is poor.

Ironically, he claims the problem has been fixed with chicken wire, which expanded the lines of communication between the planes and the nav aids. "Now they just need to find how to make the chicken wire survive your winters," he said, "Valdez is tricky."

While the original plans for the runway expansion at the airport called for the nav aids to be moved next year, Knudson says they may decide to leave the antennae exactly where it is. "It should give you the same service," he said, "which is not phenomenal."

He also speculated that in four or five years, air navigation in all of Alaska could be upgraded to a "space based navigation system", but it would depend on the cooperation between the FAA and the willingness of carriers in the state to upgrade their systems. "Right now its ground based," he told the council.

Mayor Bert Cottle suggested that the council may need to seek the assistance of a big hammer, namely, asking for assistance from Alaska's venerable Senator Ted Stevens, a heavy hitter in national politics.

Knudson countered that the FAA was well aware of how easy it would be for the council to get the ear of Senator Stevens and he believed the agency was acting to fix the problem as if Uncle Ted were already on the case.

Pioneer Field is currently undergoing an approximately $11 million makeover, which will expand the runways and landing capabilities for aircraft visiting the airport. "Valdez is going to have a dramatically improved runway," said Knudson, which he speculated will last the town for another 20 or 30 years.